The study of the Levantine Mousterian benefited from the earlier discovery of the long stratigraphy of Tabun Cave (Mount Carmel). Dorothy Garrod, the original excavator, identified three major layers that more recently were adopted as terms for classifying the industries, from late to early, as ‘Tabun B-type’, ‘C-type’, and ‘D-type’. Assemblages, generally similar to those of Tabun Cave, were discovered in other sites in the Levant. In addition, the radiometric chronology (basically through thermoluminescence dating (TL), electron spin resonance (ESR), and 14C; (see Carbon-14 Dating; Electron Spin Resonance Dating; Luminescence Dating) facilitated the ordering of the three different industries, briefly described here.
The earliest, Tabun D-type, is characterized by the production of elongated blanks defined as blades and when retouched, known as Abu Zif points. The blanks were removed from cores with basal preparation that occasionally produced the impression that the reduction sequence was bidirectional. This type of industry was found all over the Levant, in the Caucasus, and beyond the Caspian Sea. Their Levantine and Caucasus dates are from 250 000 to 130 000 years ago, and probably 90 000 years ago further east. It is quite possible that their presence and dates mark the dispersal pattern of the archaic modern humans, the population that made them. Unfortunately, no fossils were found in the excavated sites.
The more recent Mousterian is the Tabun C-type, best described from Qafzeh Cave (near Nazareth, Israel). The common products of this method are suboval and subquadrangular flakes, sometimes of large dimensions, struck from Levallois cores through centripetal and/or bidirectional exploitation. Triangular points appear in small numbers. The industry dates to 140 000/130 000-90 000/85 000 years ago and contained human burials in Skhul and Qafzeh caves, as well as the use of seashells for body decorations, and plenty of red ocher.
The latest Mousterian is Tabun B-type, dominated by the production of mainly flakes and triangular Levallois points, frequently with a broad-base striking platform removed from unidirectional convergent cores. In several sites such as Tabun, Kebara, Amud, Dederiyeh, and Shanidar Caves, Neanderthal burials were exposed. It seems that the arrival of this new population in the Levant, and the Zagros Mountains, was triggered by the cold conditions across Europe during OIS 4. Additional evidence for the presence of Neanderthals was discovered in Sakajia cave, and is evidenced by their stone industries in many localities in the Caucasus mountains and foothills.
Hence, the Levant was occupied by a northern population, the Neanderthals. However, after about a span of 40 000/30 000 years, there is a wealth of evidence for a major change. New groups of people took over the region at about 50 000/45 000 years. This was the wave often referred to as the recent dispersal of modern humans, the bearers and initiators of the Upper Palaeolithic, a change that is also seen as a technological and cultural revolution.
World History
